New Collaboration of the Best Practices Working Group with the Network against Power Abuse in Science
The ‘Best Practices’ group, which is trying to develop practices that nurture ‘good relations’ within complex academic networks, has been watching the developments related to #MeTooSTS / #WeDoSTS closely. For this, see also the stsing statement.
To continue this conversation and make use of existing infrastructures and expertise, we are now collaborating with the Network against Power Abuse in Science and calling for anonymous submissions. The network has a long-standing commitment to publishing accounts of power abuse on its website as well as supporting the people who approach them with these reports. To this end, the network has a portal which allows you to anonymously submit accounts of power abuse that you may have witnessed or experienced. If necessary, members of the network might slightly edit the account before publishing it to ensure that nobody can be identified in it. You can see examples of cases published on the network's website.
The Best Practices group believes that the question of how #WeDoSTS in Germany requires an understanding of how power abuse is facilitated and allowed to play out. Testimonies in this sense are evidence and deserve to be studied as such in order to find practical solutions and strategies. We encourage you to submit your experiences, even if you are unsure if your account fits the ‘traditional’ definitions of abuse – whatever they might be. Our focus is not only on sexual harassment and extends to different forms of power abuse and discrimination – including those that might be perceived as a challenge to traditional definitions. Down the line, the Best Practices group plans to produce a report on the landscape of #MeTooSTS and #WeDoSTS in Germany based on the stories that we receive via the network. You can submit it here.
When you submit, please note the following guidelines:
- When relevant, please include #STS at the top of your submission.
- Indicate whether the hashtag should be included if the anonymized account is published on the network's website or not. Even if not included in the published version – by the network or in the report of Best Practices – the hashtag is still relevant for the creation of an internal body of testimonies from German STS networks and for summarizing our findings.
- Indicate whether your account can be shared with Best Practices by either stating ‘I submit to the network and Best Practices’ OR ‘I submit only to the network’.
- The network requires submissions to be anonymized as much as possible. Names may be revealed internally but will not be published online.
- Re-living an incident by sharing it is often really difficult, especially when the incident is still in progress. We urge you to seek further support by availing the network’s ‘Beratungsangebot’ or consultation offer via email. More information on the support they offer is available in this document (German only).
At the moment, the anonymous reports are being received and stored confidentially by members of the Best Practices group – Baldeep Kaur (grewal[at]uni-potsdam.de), Milena Bister (milena.bister[at]univie.ac.at), and Anja Klein (anja.klein[at]hu-berlin.de) – for the next 6 months (until including August 2023). Our employers have no stake or role in the work we do within Best Practices. After six months, this collaboration will undergo a review after which it might be handled by a different group of people.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Warmly,
Baldeep, Milena, and Anja for Best Practices
Last Update: March 7, 2023